Stanford preserves legacy of late social justice activist Sal Alvarez

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Sylvia Alvarez holds a photo of herself with her late husband Sal, taken in 1966, at her home in San Jose, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 6, 2017. Researchers at Stanford are in the early stages of archiving the work of the late Sal Alvarez, a Latino civil rights icon in San Jose who passed away in 2015. His family is donating over 100 boxes of personal items, documents and photos to continue his legacy and make these historical items accessible to the public. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group)

A filing system for sorting documents and photographs in the home of Sylvia Alvarez in San Jose, Calif., photographed on Friday, Oct. 6, 2017. Researchers at Stanford are in the early stages of archiving the work of the late Sal Alvarez, a Latino civil rights icon in San Jose who passed away in 2015. His family is donating over 100 boxes of personal items, documents and photos to continue his legacy and make these historical items accessible to the public. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group)

Sylvia Alvarez, right, and her daughter Serena Alvarez, left, looks at one of many photo albums at their home in San Jose, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 6, 2017. Researchers at Stanford are in the early stages of archiving the work of the late Sal Alvarez, a Latino civil rights icon in San Jose who passed away in 2015. His family is donating over 100 boxes of personal items, documents and photos to continue his legacy and make these historical items accessible to the public. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group)

Serena Alvarez holds some of the writing of her father Sal Alvarez in her San Jose, Calif., home on Friday, Oct. 6, 2017. Researchers at Stanford are in the early stages of archiving the work of the late Sal Alvarez, a Latino civil rights icon in San Jose who passed away in 2015. His family is donating over 100 boxes of personal items, documents and photos to continue his legacy and make these historical items accessible to the public. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group)

Sylvia Alvarez talks about going through hundreds of boxes of items stored by her late husband at her San Jose, Calif., home on Friday, Oct. 6, 2017. Researchers at Stanford are in the early stages of archiving the work of the late Sal Alvarez, a Latino civil rights icon in San Jose who passed away in 2015. His family is donating over 100 boxes of personal items, documents and photos to continue his legacy and make these historical items accessible to the public. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group)

Serena Alvarez, left, and Ignacio Ornelas, right listen to stories about Sal Alvarez from the Alvarez home in San Jose, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 6, 2017. Researchers at Stanford are in the early stages of archiving the work of the late Sal Alvarez, a Latino civil rights icon in San Jose who passed away in 2015. His family is donating over 100 boxes of personal items, documents and photos to continue his legacy and make these historical items accessible to the public. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group)

Some of the belongings of Sal Alvarez photographed at the Alvarez home in San Jose, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 6, 2017. Researchers at Stanford are in the early stages of archiving the work of the late Sal Alvarez, a Latino civil rights icon in San Jose who passed away in 2015. His family is donating over 100 boxes of personal items, documents and photos to continue his legacy and make these historical items accessible to the public. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group)

Sylvia Alvarez goes through documents and other belongings of her late husband Sal Alvarez in her San Jose, Calif., home on Friday, Oct. 6, 2017. Researchers at Stanford are in the early stages of archiving the work of the late Sal Alvarez, a Latino civil rights icon in San Jose who passed away in 2015. His family is donating over 100 boxes of personal items, documents and photos to continue his legacy and make these historical items accessible to the public. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group)

Sylvia Alvarez photographed in the tack room on their ranch where her husband Sal Alvarez stored dozens of boxes of documents, photographs and other materials in San Jose, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 6, 2017. Researchers at Stanford are in the early stages of archiving the work of the late Sal Alvarez, a Latino civil rights icon in San Jose who passed away in 2015. His family is donating over 100 boxes of personal items, documents and photos to continue his legacy and make these historical items accessible to the public. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group)

Boxes containing documents, photographs and other personal items belonging to Sal Alvarez stored in an old tack room in San Jose, Calif., photographed on Friday, Oct. 6, 2017. Researchers at Stanford are in the early stages of archiving the work of the late Sal Alvarez, a Latino civil rights icon in San Jose who passed away in 2015. His family is donating over 100 boxes of personal items, documents and photos to continue his legacy and make these historical items accessible to the public. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group)

Sylvia Alvarez, left, and her son Sal Cesar Alvarez, right, show Stanford archivist Ignacio Ornelas, center, some old writings of the Sylvia's late husband Sal Alvarez in their San Jose, Calif., home on Friday, Oct. 6, 2017. Researchers at Stanford are in the early stages of archiving the work of the late Sal Alvarez, a Latino civil rights icon in San Jose who passed away in 2015. His family is donating over 100 boxes of personal items, documents and photos to continue his legacy and make these historical items accessible to the public. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group)

Photographs and artwork on the wall of the Alvarez home in San Jose, Calif., photographed on Friday, Oct. 6, 2017. Researchers at Stanford are in the early stages of archiving the work of the late Sal Alvarez, a Latino civil rights icon in San Jose who passed away in 2015. His family is donating over 100 boxes of personal items, documents and photos to continue his legacy and make these historical items accessible to the public. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group)

Stanford archivist Ignacio Ornelas, right, talks about the wealth of history being made available thanks to Sylvia, left, and Serena Alvarez at the Alvarez home in San Jose, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 6, 2017. Researchers at Stanford are in the early stages of archiving the work of the late Sal Alvarez, a Latino civil rights icon in San Jose who passed away in 2015. His family is donating over 100 boxes of personal items, documents and photos to continue his legacy and make these historical items accessible to the public. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group)

Sylvia Alvarez talks about her late husband Sal Alvarez from her San Jose, Calif., home on Friday, Oct. 6, 2017. Researchers at Stanford are in the early stages of archiving the work of the late Sal Alvarez, a Latino civil rights icon in San Jose who passed away in 2015. His family is donating over 100 boxes of personal items, documents and photos to continue his legacy and make these historical items accessible to the public. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group)

Sylvia Alvarez, center, photographed with her son Sal Cesar Alvarez, right, and daughter Serena Alvarez, left, in her San Jose, Calif., home on Friday, Oct. 6, 2017. Researchers at Stanford are in the early stages of archiving the work of the late Sal Alvarez, a Latino civil rights icon in San Jose who passed away in 2015. His family is donating over 100 boxes of personal items, documents and photos to continue his legacy and make these historical items accessible to the public. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group)

The Alvarez family home is a treasure trove of memories and history. Stacks of carefully organized storage boxes — jam-packed with letters, personal essays, newspaper clippings and photographs — fill the spacious, barnlike house tucked away in San Jose’s Evergreen neighborhood.

Its longtime resident, Salvador E. Alvarez — the social justice pioneer and faith leader known for empowering farmworkers, immigrants and marginalized communities in San Jose and across California — died in 2015 after a debilitating illness.

Now, researchers at Stanford University are making a permanent home for his memorabilia, in hopes that it’ll keep Alvarez’s legacy alive. The items will be archived at Stanford’s Department of Special Collections and University Archives, where they’ll be accessible to the public for research.

Sylvia Alvarez holds a photo of herself with her late husband Sal, taken in 1966, at her home in San Jose, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 6, 2017. Researchers at Stanford are in the early stages of archiving the work of the late Sal Alvarez, a Latino civil rights icon in San Jose who passed away in 2015. His family is donating over 100 boxes of personal items, documents and photos to continue his legacy and make these historical items accessible to the public. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group)

“We believe that we were called to do this work,” said his widow, Sylvia Alvarez, standing amid the stacks of boxes Friday morning. “The work that (God) called us to do is what you see around us. Social justice.”

Salvador Alvarez, a Catholic deacon, left behind carefully chronicled details of his work: Dissertations. Awards. Documents on the United Farm Workers union and his teachings as a professor of Chicano studies. Photographs of his first missionary trip to Mexico and alongside Cesar Chavez. Letters from jail.

The family storage boxes, labeled with bright Post-it notes with brief descriptions that offer clues to the past, awaken decades-old memories for Sylvia Alvarez. Each marks a milestone in her late husband’s life.

Robert Trujillo, director of the university’s Special Collections department, and library specialist Ignacio Ornelas are in the beginning stages of archiving Alvarez’s work, making frequent trips to the family’s quiet Evergreen barn to transfer items. The pair has transferred 43 boxes so far and has more than 100 left to process, according to Ornelas. For them, it’s important to preserve and memorialize the vast contributions of a man they said is often overlooked.

“It’s always our job as researchers to find people somewhat on the margins,” said Ornelas. “Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta got a lot of attention, which they deserved. But there were a lot of other people.”

“There’s the big names,” Ornelas added, “but then you learn about people like Sal, who were tirelessly advocating, going to Washington, D.C., writing letters, going to rallies and having meetings late at night. Who are they?”

Showing a bright mind early, Alvarez, the son of Mexican immigrants, graduated from James Lick High School in East San Jose and then San Jose State, where he was one of few Mexican-American students. He met Sylvia on campus and the couple married in 1965 at Holy Family Catholic Church in downtown San Jose.

Latino political activist Herman Gallegos, who was training community organizers in East San Jose, urged Alvarez to pursue post-graduate studies in social work at UC Berkeley. At age 30, he became one of the youngest college professors in California, co-founding the Graduate School of Social Work at San Jose State.

Stanford archivist Ignacio Ornelas, right, talks about the wealth of history being made available thanks to Sylvia, left, and Serena Alvarez at the Alvarez home in San Jose, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 6, 2017. Researchers at Stanford are in the early stages of archiving the work of the late Sal Alvarez, a Latino civil rights icon in San Jose who passed away in 2015. His family is donating over 100 boxes of personal items, documents and photos to continue his legacy and make these historical items accessible to the public. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group)

A devout Catholic, he was recruited in the late 1960s by the U.S. Conference of Bishops to focus on the spiritual needs of Latinos, which included introducing Spanish-language Masses and bringing images of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the patron saint of the Americas, into local churches. He was ordained a deacon, a rank just below priest in the Catholic church, in 1979.

One of the pinnacles of his career as an activist was his work with Congressman Peter Rodino and Sen. Alan Simpson to plan the Immigration and Reform Act of 1986, which granted a path to citizenship to millions of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. Sylvia Alvarez recently dug up two boxes filled with tattered and sometimes barely legible documents detailing her husband’s involvement with the historic legislation.

It was the last time comprehensive immigration reform was passed — 30 years later, the country once again is gripped in debate over what to do about millions of undocumented immigrants, mostly from Latin America, who have been living and working in the U.S.

Gallegos, who now lives south of Sacramento, said Alvarez went wherever he was needed.

A filing system for sorting documents and photographs in the home of Sylvia Alvarez in San Jose, Calif., photographed on Friday, Oct. 6, 2017. Researchers at Stanford are in the early stages of archiving the work of the late Sal Alvarez, a Latino civil rights icon in San Jose who passed away in 2015. His family is donating over 100 boxes of personal items, documents and photos to continue his legacy and make these historical items accessible to the public. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group)

“I was always struck by Sal’s willingness to jump in and do whatever was asked of him, even if it meant going to jail or traveling,” said Gallegos. “Whatever cost it was to him, he was willing to get involved.”

Sylvia was the family’s sole breadwinner as Alvarez organized tirelessly across the state, though she too was a passionate activist, organizing alongside her husband.

At one point, the couple invested $4,000 of their own money — revenue they had acquired after selling their home — toward the founding of the Mexican-American contemporary journal, El Grito, during a time when Chicanos were not published on mainstream platforms. A document depicting the couple’s loan to launch the journal will go in Stanford’s archives.

Alvarez’s activism was rooted in something far beyond political affiliations or opposing parties, according to his daughter, Serena.

“It’s really about faith,” she said. She wore a T-shirt printed with the image of the Virgin Mary on Friday to represent her parents’ most beloved religious figure.

“Everything they’ve done was through the grace of the Virgen,” she said. “All this activism wasn’t political. It came from a calling.”

Ornelas said the collection will open to the public in about six months. Until then, Sylvia Alvarez will continue reliving old memories, as she prepares to part ways with some of the family’s prized artifacts. It’s important that others learn about this history, she said, particularly during trying times for immigrant and marginalized communities.

“Our young generation, they only know about the farmworkers,” she said, “but they don’t know about all the history of the ’60s, of all the people involved. We’re trying to provide now what we’re losing. We’re losing ground again.”

“In a sense, going back into our history will give them knowledge on how we get back in the game, how we fight for the things that they’re trying to take away from us.”

Tatiana Sanchez covers race, demographics and immigration for the Bay Area News Group. She got her start in journalism in the California desert, where she covered the marginalized immigrant communities of the eastern Coachella Valley. Before heading north, Sanchez spent a year as immigration reporter at the San Diego Union-Tribune, where she covered the region's multicultural communities, social justice topics and life on the U.S. -Mexico border. A Bay Area native, she received a master's in journalism from Columbia University. In 2017, Sanchez was part of a team of East Bay Times reporters awarded the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of the Ghost Ship fire in Oakland. She's based in San Jose.